OLD TIMES.
OLD TIMES
A Picture of Social Life at the End of the Eighteenth Century
COLLECTED, AND ILLUSTRATED FROM THE SATIRICAL
AND OTHER SKETCHES OF THE DAY
BY
JOHN ASHTON
AUTHOR OF "SOCIAL LIFE IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE" ETC. ETC.
With Eighty-eight Illustrations
NEW YORK
SCRIBNER & WELFORD
743 & 747 BROADWAY
1885
(p. v) PREFACE.
Of the period of which this book treats, there have been politicalhistories, and scurrilous books written anent the Royal Family, adnauseam: and the Diaries which have been published, bearing on thistime, deal only with the acts, and sayings, of the higherclasses—leaving the life of the vastly greater proportion of thepopulation—the middle classes—untouched. No better source ofinformation as to their mode of living, their amusements, the tattle,and passing follies of the times, can possibly be found, than in theNewspapers of the day; and I selected the commencement of the Times,1 Jan. 1788, as the starting point of a picture of the Social Life atthe end of the Eighteenth Century.
The copies of the Times, however, are very imperfect,—nay, in someyears, totally missing—until 1793-1794—from which date they areperfect; so that, when anything noteworthy occurred, I have drawn fromanother source; and, to establish the undoubted authenticity of eachquotation, I have given the title of the Newspaper, with its date.
(p. vi) The daily Newspapers of those times were totally different tothose to which we are accustomed. The absence of Railways, Steamships,and Electric Telegraphs, combined with a very high rate of Postage,prevented the publication of all News, either from foreign orprovincial sources, except it were of real importance; and, as thedaily sheets must be filled, it followed, as a matter of course, thata substitute was found in detailing the social life of theMetropolis—and the daily Newspapers, which now give us the latestnews from all parts of the globe—had to be filled with socialparagraphs, anecdotal, satirical, or otherwise. They were as open tocorrection, or contradiction, then, as now; so that we may put trustin them; and when these paragraphs are collected, and somewhatclassified, they afford a view of the daily life of the period, suchas is utterly unattainable elsewhere. This collection must, ofnecessity, be valuable to the student of those times, besides being ofgreat interest to the general reader.
The difficulty of obtaining contemporary illustrations, fitted forthis work, from books, or pictures, has compelled me to draw freely onthe satirical prints of the period—which are abundant, and perfectlywell suited to the purpose, if the reader will only bear in mind